Opinion

I was particularly interested to read the recent review of the Technics SL-1200GR2 [HFN Sep ’24]. This is because for a very long time I’ve owned and been happily using a much earlier example of the direct-drive breed. I can’t now recall exactly when I bought it, but I’ve had a Panasonic/Technics SL-1500 turntable and arm with a Shure V15 series cartridge since about 1973. And it has continued to deliver good performance for about half a century!

The main sign of the SL-1500’s age after so many decades of use is that the small rotary potentiometer, which tweaks the rotation speed, has developed a ‘burn spot’ just at the place that sets 33.33rpm. This means that, nowadays, I have to let the deck run for about a quarter of an hour before use and then check if the speed has settled down correctly, or needs a slight tweak.

I keep meaning to open up the deck and deal with that pot. But, of course, I never get around to it and when I want to play an LP I just have a cup of tea as I let the turntable get itself ready. However, each time I do this it does remind me that my SL-1500 is probably well beyond its designed lifetime, and needs either a comprehensive service or replacing. The SL-1200GR2 review tempted me into buying it as an ‘upgrade’. However, I was struck by the price, which is a pound short of £1800. Is that expensive, I wondered?

That question is one I suspect many of us encounter – particularly when talking to people who aren’t hi-fi audio enthusiasts. I must confess that one sign of my age is that I tend to wonder about the prices of some products launched these days. But this example set me thinking more deeply about the matter.

One reason for the cost is, of course, that serious hi-fi is now a minority interest – unlike the 1970s when it was on trend for everyone to boast having a ‘hi-fi’ system as the latest ‘must have’ consumer item. Lower sales volume means the costs of R&D and tooling up for manufacturing has to be recovered from selling fewer units of a product. But I then remembered that I wasn’t bearing in mind the economic consequences of general ‘inflation’...

I can’t recall how much I paid for my SL-1500 turntable, but it was probably somewhere in the range of £150 to £200 five decades ago. I then looked up the historic values for general price inflation for the UK over that period.

Armed with that data, I needed just ten minutes with a spreadsheet to realise that in terms of ‘purchasing value’ £200 in 1974 would be roughly equivalent to just over £1900 now! Add in the experience of knowing that I bought something I still enjoy using to this day, and it becomes clear that the price isn’t really ‘a lot’ if you want a good, reliable item.

This consideration of the impact of time on judging the ‘cost’ of modern audio equipment makes more sense than just looking at the price without context. Particularly when experience indicates that a product may well have a very long life and deliver pleasure for many, many years. Okay, in my case I’ve been happy to use my old kit despite now having to wait for it to ‘warm up’ before use!

However, for someone buying their first high-quality components, the life usage (and hence also the potential secondhand value) are worth bearing in mind given the reality of ongoing price inflation over the years. Then we just have to decide on the simple basis: can I afford it, and will I enjoy the music it can deliver? If it lets us access decades of enjoyment, then the cost of modern audio equipment isn’t ‘a lot’. Rather it’s a key that opens a door to the many concert halls and studios in which great music is created for us to hear.